The present invention is directed to an apparatus for driving fastening elements, such as nails, bolts, clips and the like, into a receiving material. The apparatus includes an apparatus housing with a guide extending in the driving direction and a transport channel in the guide for moving fastening elements from a magazine into the guide. The magazine contains a transport slide displaceable parallel to the driving direction. Further the magazine includes a magazine housing containing a guide channel extending transversely of the driving direction and open to a transport channel in the guide. The guide channel has a first guide rail and a second guide rail extending transversely of the driving direction of the apparatus and spaced laterally apart. Each guide rail has a surface facing the other with the facing surfaces profiled with tooth-shaped projections each having tooth flanks of different lengths. The first guide rail can be shifted by the transport slide laterally outwardly from the second guide rail against the force of a spring while it extends parallel to the guide channel. The transport slide interacts with a control cam-located on the first guide rail.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,346,884 a device for driving fastening elements, in the form of nails, into a receiving material, includes a guide, a magazine and a transport slide. The magazine, which can be removed from the guide, has two guide rails each with a tooth-shaped profiled surface facing the other and with the tooth-shaped surfaces having tooth flanks of different lengths. The tooth flanks facing a transport channel in the guide are shorter than the other flanks. A first guide rail can be displaced laterally away from the other or second guide rail against the force of a spring. The second guide rail can be shifted axially and displaced laterally. During transport of the fastening elements located between the guide rails, the fastening elements are moved in the direction of the guide by the tooth-shaped profile of the first guide rail and are moved or rolled over the longer tooth flanks of the second guide rail until they reach a position again in the region of shorter flanks. In such position,. they are aligned in a plane extending through the axis of a driving piston.
With this known driving device, it is not possible to work with fastening elements spaced apart from one another by a basically deformation resistant carrying strip. If, for example, a portion of the carrying strip is located in the transport channel of the guide, the stiffness of the carrying strip counteracts a lateral shifting of the fastening elements, when fastening elements are moved over the longer tooth flanks, and there may be interference with the transporting step or damage to the carrying strip. There is a further disadvantage that the removal of the fastening elements located between the guide rails in the magazine can take place only when the magazine is separated from the guide and the fastening elements are pulled individually from the guide rails counter to the driving direction.